Bleed Slow
by dyk3adellic
Summary: Draco and Ginny are the perfect Auror team. There isn't a case they can't solve, until the murder of Pansy Parkinson. With time on the side of their killer, and Ginny as his final conquest, they have to hope they'll be able to stop the murderer in time.
1. Chapter 1

Ginny's feet were propped up on her desk, and she was leafing through the Daily Prophet, the Quibbler sitting untouched by her feet. She heard her partner before she saw him, as stealthy as he was. And she'd better, or she wasn't worth the training that had been spent on her.

Draco plopped his arse on the desktop right next to where Ginny had her feet propped up. He was munching on a dough-nut, and seemed to have more in a bag which he offered to her. She shook her head. Her stomach was on edge with the newest article on their latest killing that had just gone down. Ginny was quite sure that both she and Draco were about to be called in for a lecture. A lecture that truly wasn't warranted.

Ginny and Draco had been partners for six months, and they had solved every unsolvable case that had been sent their way. And there had to have been at least ten big ones. Not to mention the fact that Draco and Ginny were known as the dynamic duo.

Ginny had looked at Draco the day they had assigned him to be her partner and said, "Look, I don't care about the past. I care about doing my job damn well. So if you care about the same thing, we will have an easy enough time working together."

And they had. They were a powerhouse team when it came to hunting down fugitives and killers. If anything, Draco's past helped him, and Ginny's brush with Tom gave her a shrewdness that surprised them case would go unsolved if you handed it to them.

No case other than this one, Ginny lamented. It had started with Pansy Parkinson being brutally murdered. Not just murdered. BRUTALLY. Almost every inch of her body was covered in cuts and bruises, as though the killer had taken his time. Some cuts were healed, their Muggle forensics expert (who they kept having to Obliviate) guessed at a month. His best explanation was that she had been restrained and slowly tortured over time.

But Muggle torture was so crazy. Pansy had been a witch. She could have taken on any Muggle who got the drop on her. Even Ginny, who highly disliked the woman, knew that much about her.

The thing that made Ginny's stomach really turn was that Pansy had been raped with a knife. It was all so terrible, and neither her or Draco had ever seen anything like it. It was horrendous and despicable. Ginny didn't see how one human being could do that to another.

Before Ginny could read what the Daily Prophet had to say about this still unsolved murder, Draco had snatched the paper out of her hands and dropped it into the rubbish bin where he always claimed it belonged anyways.

"Why, Weasley, do you feel the need to torture yourself with that filth?" he demanded as he sipped a cup of coffee Ginny hadn't noticed.

"If we," she gestured between the two of them "are going to be yelled at for letting this go three weeks with absolutely no leads or clues, I damn well want to know what the enemy is saying."

Draco chuckled. "The Prophet isn't the enemy, at least not anymore. It just states public opinion, which is that we should have found the killer by now."

Ginny snorted. "If it's so easy, why don't they come do it themselves and save us the time and effort?"

Draco smirked. "There is my feisty Weasley. And they won't because they can't. All they can do is run their mouths. Not even The Chosen One could find anything on this case."

Ginny grunted.

"I'll take that as a 'Why don't they give him a hard time like they do us?' Well, dearest Weasley, The Chosen One does no wrong," Draco explained.

Ginny just glared at Draco. If looks could kill…

"Too soon?" Draco asked.

"The end of the world would still be too soon to mention that my fiance decided to leave me because he is suddenly gay and in love with my big brother Charlie. And for the thousandth time, no Draco, I did NOT see it coming," Ginny said in a frustrated voice.

Draco looked like he wanted to laugh, as he did every time they discussed Harry these days. But like always, out of what Ginny assumed was respect for her, he contained himself. But just barely.

Still, Draco Malfoy made an effort. While the rest of the world assumed Ginny was being homophobic for not just accepting that Harry had cheated on her with her brother, Draco sided with her. While it was tentative, the two had formed a friendship. One which allowed Ginny to go to Draco's flat on holidays for food, because there was no way in hell she could watch Harry look at Charlie with lovey-dovey eyes and not stab him to death with a bloody fork.

Ginny still had to interact with her ex-fiance to a degree. He was head of the Auror Office. So if Ginny and Draco were about to be lectured it would be coming from the last person Ginny wanted to speak with.

"Aren't you rumored to have already moved on?" Draco quipped.

Ginny shrugged. "I'm not sure because you threw my paper away."

Draco handed her a cup of coffee.

"You're so defensive without coffee in you. Did you wake up late?"

Ginny nodded. She had also stayed up late pouring over notes on this case, trying to find something that would help them. But so far there was nothing and she told Draco so.

"Jesus, Weasley. You need sleep. You've been running yourself into the ground. You can't solve this case if you can't think properly. You also can't solve it without your charming and stunning partner; me," Draco informed her.

Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Weasley, you wound me," Draco said seriously, one hand clutching his chest.

"You'll live, Malfoy," Ginny promised.

There was a rap on their cubicle wall, and the two looked to their right to see Harry Freakin' Potter standing there. Ginny turned her eyes to the heaven, wondering what she had done so terrible to warrant this punishment from the Gods.

"Look, Malfoy, Ginny-"

"It's Weasley," Ginny corrected.

Harry plowed on as though he hadn't heard her.

"I know this is a tough case. There are no leads, no witnesses, no Muggle DNA evidence that suggests whether our killer was Muggle or Magical, and the papers are pestering us for answers. Nothing this terrible has happened in awhile. The public is scared out of their minds. Just find me something small I can give them to show that we are making progress on the case," Harry pleaded.

Malfoy arched a brow. "Weasley here just pulled an all-nighter pouring over the file trying to find something, anything, that could help. I spent yesterday in Knockturn Alley hoping to find something for a bag of awfully heavy gold I was too tired to carry. We are trying," he drawled.

Harry sighed. "I know. You two are the best team we got. It's just… we can't give up on this. Not after what was done to her. She deserves better than that," he said stoically.

The mask on Draco's eyes hardened. He became very still and silent, and he exuded a calm that would have made most people's blood run cold with fear.

"You forget yourself, Potter. She was my friend since birth. I would do anything to bring her killer to justice. You can tell that to the reporters," Draco informed him, turning his back on Harry, a clear dismissal.

Harry looked as though he had more he wanted to say, but there was only so much room when it came to Draco and Ginny. To push them or make them leave would be a loss to the Wizarding world, as they were the best team of Aurors the department had ever seen. But sometimes Harry wished he didn't have to walk around on eggshells in front of them.

Of course part of that was Harry's own fault, and he knew that. As he watched Ginny resolutely ignore him and open up the case file, he realized that maybe Malfoy was the only person that could protect her broken heart.

Harry walked away. He had never meant to hurt Ginny, and he knew she was aware of that. But not meaning to hurt someone didn't hurt them any less in the end. In fact it seemed to have hurt her even more. He had been so honest with her when he'd realized he had feelings for men. At first they both thought maybe he was bisexual. But when Charlie had kissed him one drunken night all bets were off.

The rest of the Weasley's accepted it. If not Ginny, why not Charlie? Molly kept saying they made such a lovely couple every time the two of them were together, which was just another dagger in Ginny's heart he knew.

She had stopped coming to family gatherings. Sunday at the Weasley's now had a permanently empty chair. Ginny was rarely seen these days in the presence of anyone other than Malfoy. Something that Charlie had voiced his concern about.

Yes, Charlie wanted Harry to threaten Malfoy. Harry couldn't, he knew that. Ginny would be livid, and Harry had absolutely no right. Even if he did feel like her brother. That was not how she felt about him. And Malfoy wasn't too bad. He had done a lot of good teamed up with Ginny. No, Harry knew it was best to let Ginny take care of herself. She would come around eventually… he hoped. And if not, it was like Ginny had said as she threw his clothes at him; it was the price he paid for love.

A pale man was locked away in a red lighted room, known to most people as a dark room. It was the place one went to develop photographs, and this man had been able to get plenty of shots of his next victim today. But that wasn't why he was developing the film. No, he wanted to see the one photograph he had gotten of Ginny Weasley where she wasn't blurred but perfectly in focus.

He wondered how many more bodies would be discovered before she found out it was him. He wondered if Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter would complicate things. He wondered if her blood was as red as her hair, and if she'd moan more prettily for him than the ugly Parkinson cow had done.

Funny, how one Pureblood witch could be missing for a whole month and no one even seemed to notice her disappearance. Nor did they really care. Sure, people were horrified by the horror of what he had done, but it was like an art work. Parkinson's body would forever be remembered as a temple to his hatred.

He knew one thing. No matter how many women he cut, no matter how many people he killed, the thrill of it would never even compare to simply being in Ginny Weasley's presence and having her not know he was the murderer.


	2. Chapter 2

Ginny and Draco had a rule. A rule that was strictly enforced after one of them pulled an all-nighter, or an almost all-nighter. The rule was that unless there was a body or something equally huge they didn't wake each other up. So when Draco was there shaking her awake, she just knew he had better have a good reason or she was going to hex him into next Sunday despite his bloody good cooking.

"I take your grunt," Draco began, "to mean that you want to know why I am waking you. Well, we've had a new case, which seems very much related to the old case, pop up. Except this girl escaped somehow."

Ginny sat up, her curly hair wild and standing up like a mane around her head. Her eyes were squinty from tiredness, and the freckles on her nose stood out in sharp contrast to her pale face. If Draco were a man who called women beautiful, he would use that word to describe Ginny Weasley when she woke up in a too-big shirt and a pair of his old shorts that she had stolen from him somehow.

But Draco wasn't that man. He was a pompous, arrogant arse who thought too highly of himself. And there was just no way in hell he would ever let Ginny Weasley know that she unsettled him and made his heart rate triple.

"Wait, what?" Ginny said with a yawn punctuation the question.

Draco sat down on the edge of her bed and began to explain. "Lavender Brown, age twenty-six, had been missing for a week. Well, she was found by Muggle authorities wandering in London. She was clearly tortured, much like Pansy had been, and unable to speak much except to say Hogwarts over and over. Thank Merlin one of ours was there to intercept her and get her to St. Mungos. The cuts and bruising look very much like what we saw on Pansy."

Ginny sat there for a moment in complete silence before saying, "Are you telling me this dude is a fucking serial killer?"

"No," Draco said, "Because Lavender Brown is somehow still alive. We are all guessing she escaped. She won't talk to anyone, but she does keep saying Weasley, so we figured we'd take you in and see how that goes."

Ginny groaned long and loud at the cruelty of the Gods to intrude on her only Saturday off this month.

"Yes, yes, Weasley. Life is unfair, but this poor girl needs a woman's touch, even if yours is a bit lacking in all things feminine."

Ginny blinked at him with her doe eyes. "I'm girly!" she retorted.

"Weasley," Draco laughed, "you don't even cook."

Ginny opened her mouth, ready to tell Draco Fucking Malfoy that it was sexist to assume one had to know how to cook to be girly. She had an entire argument planned out that would decimate him and his bloody wrong opinion, but there was a knock on the front door of her flat.

Ginny furrowed her brow, looked down the hall towards the front door, and then looked back at Draco.

"Did you bring someone?" she asked.

"No. I have a Floo-key good for only one, remember? I've no clue who that is," Draco said, eyes tightening.

Ginny grabbed her wand and made for the front door before Draco could stop her. But of course he couldn't just let his partner face possible death alone, so he took off after her, his wand drawn and thoughts of stupid Gryffindor bravery running through his head.

Ginny Weasley was short, and by short Draco Malfoy meant that Ginny was five feet tall, where as he was six feet tall. She couldn't even reach the peephole in the door to see who was standing outside. So Draco looked for her, and what he saw made his day.

"Oh Weasley, we could have so much fun with this," he smirked, looking down at her.

"Who is it?" she whispered, as though there wasn't a spell in place to prevent anyone from hearing them.

"Your ex-fiance. You're in my clothes, and I'm at your flat first thing in the morning," Draco told her.

Ginny stood there for a moment, thinking it over. But a chance to maybe piss off Harry or by extension Charlie was too good to pass up. Draco was only in a t-shirt and jeans, and Ginny told him to take off his shirt.

"What, not even going to buy me a drink first?" he joked.

Ginny merely rolled her eyes and took his shirt. She told him to bend down and she mussed up his hair, then ran back to the bedroom and let Draco 'sleepily' open the door.

"Alright, hold on." Draco feigned exhaustion and slowly opened the door.

Ginny had a perfect view from her bed, and Harry looked like his mouth was waiting on a dick to slide in it was open so wide.

"Yes?" Draco asked after a moment.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Harry demanded.

Ginny covered her mouth, trying desperately not to giggle.

"Well, I was trying this awesome thing called sleep before your incessant knocking, Potter," Malfoy deadpanned.

"Here?" Harry asked.

Draco nodded. "Yes, Potter, here. Is there some reason you are here?"

Harry stood still for a moment before saying, "But Ron said he talked to you."

Ginny couldn't see Draco's face, and she wondered what expression he was wearing.

"Are you informing me that someone is impersonating me?" Draco asked.

Harry looked so put out by the way this conversation was going. Ginny couldn't help but laugh, and that caused Draco to swear, therefore giving their whole plot away.

Draco and Ginny weren't just great together when it came to being Aurors. They were also a great practical joker team. They were known for driving people crazy with their schemes. There had been a few famous ones, but not so famous as when they snuck boxes full of transfigured Flobberworms into the Experimental Charms department. It had taken them a week to figure out that they were nothing but uninteresting Flobberworms. It was the talk of the Ministry, and Kingsley had been laughing as he reprimanded them for wasting valuable time.

Harry threw up his hands. "I just can't with the two of you. Get ready, we have to be at St. Mungo's soon."

When Ginny was dressed and Draco once again had a shirt on, they Apparated to the hospital. Harry was already there, trying to give them a run down on Lavender Brown's current condition.

"She keeps saying she wants Weasley, but she screamed when we brought in Ron, so Ginny is our best bet at this moment. Malfoy, you may want to stay out of the room with me," Harry attempted to order.

Ginny halted in her steps. "Malfoy is MY partner, and he goes where I go until there is a real reason for him not to do so. Now excuse me. I have a job to do."

And with that, Ginny and Draco breezed into Lavender's room.

The first thing Ginny noticed was that the room was very dark. Blinds drawn, minimal light. And Lavender was lying in a bed straight ahead. Her eyes widened as she saw Ginny, but she made no attempt to scream. In fact, she beckoned Ginny closer.

Draco lingered a few steps back, casing out the room. Nothing seemed to be suspicious, but who really knew. He supposed they would have to call in Granger to search for Muggle electronics in this room.

"Weasley," Lavender breathed as Ginny approached her bed.

Lavender had not been healed, per Harry's request. Every cut and bruise had been documented so they could be investigated at a later date. She looked gaunt and pale, as though meals had been few and far between. Her hair was knotted so badly Ginny wondered if it would ever come untangled, and there was a haunted look to Lavender's eyes, as though she had seen something terrible that would live with her for the rest of her days. Ginny supposed she had.

"Lavender," Ginny murmured softly, "what happened?"

Lavender blinked away tears as she said, "He is preparing himself for his conquest. He wants to kill everyone who stands in the way of him having the woman he loves. It is like he has no idea what real love is. He is sick and twisted. He wanted me to do things, and then got mad that my hair wasn't the right color, or my breasts were too big. He is going to kill a bloody path, Weasley."

"For who?" Ginny asked. "Who does he want?"

Lavender Brown had tears rolling down her face as she said, "I am so sorry. For you, Ginny Weasley. He wants you."


	3. Chapter 3

I am fine, Ginny grumpily insisted half an hour later to both Harry and Draco,who were hovering.  
Fine my arse, Harry shouted. You ve got a madman after you, Ginny! It s Weasley, she corrected, a stubborn expression on her face. Harry threw up his hands in defeat and gave an exasperated sigh before leaving the meeting room they had gathered in at St. Mungo s. Whatever Ginny wanted to do, Harry knew she would do it. And the only person alive who might be able to convince her otherwise was Draco Malfoy, for some unfathomable reason.  
Harry didn t get it. And by it he meant the partnership between Draco and Ginny. The two had partnered with others before, but neither had ever been as successful as they were together. They seemed to have a silent way of communicating. Harry had seen them on a bust once, and they moved in sync, no words needed between them. It was as if they could read each other.  
Draco had a dark past, but Ginny was the only partner he d had who hadn t faulted him for it. She had actually embraced it and used it as a weapon at times, just as she used the little knowledge Tom Riddle left her with. It unnerved others, that she could look past the Death Eater scar on Draco s arm and help him bring in those he used to fight with. Harry just plain didn t get it. But if one thing about Ginny Weasley was true, it was that she was an enigma.  
Back in the meeting room, Draco stood with one foot in a chair, one on the ground, his arms crossed across the leg in the chair. He was waiting Ginny out, which was not an easy feat. He had only successfully managed it at one point in time.  
Ginny Weasley, when faced with a problem she just didn t want to deal with, would shut down. The easiest way to get her to talk was to make her so awkwardly uncomfortable with the silence that she had to speak. Although since they d gotten closer, the silence was no longer so awkward, which was foiling Draco Malfoy s plan.  
I m swell, okay? Ginny screamed.  
So maybe Draco s plan wasn t foiled. No, you aren t, Draco said. You have a man who may have allowed Lavender to escape so she could come tell you that he is coming for you. I would be scared senseless, and if you think you aren t going to have at least me at your flat with you at all times, you re a damn fool, Weasley. Ginny glared, but she made no effort to argue.  
Malfoy, do you really think he let her go? she asked.  
Draco pursed his lips.  
Well, we know now that he is a wizard. We know that he had Lavender Brown defenseless. And somehow he forgot to put her in binds, and place locking charms on the door? No, he did this shit on purpose so he could get under your skin, Draco explained.  
Ginny nodded and said, That does make more sense. Well, we just keep on working the case like we have been. No one knows Lavender escaped, so if we really wanted Ginny trailed off, thinking, that shrewd look in her eyes that she got when she was about to make a tactical move.  
Yes? Draco prompted.  
Ginny bit her lip. Well, I was just thinking the Prophet has been giving us hell for not having leads. But if we had found Lavender Brown ourselves, well, we may not have the killer but we are getting closer. It would make us look good and buy us time. It might also throw this dude off his game enough that we can get at him. Draco sat down in the chair, still not on eye level with Ginny, but definitely a lot closer than he had been. He was close enough that he could notice the freckle on her lower lip just a couple centimeters from the corner. It was cute and so distinctly Ginny. And it was there that she always bit her lip, obscuring his favorite freckle when she did so.  
Ginny Weasley wasn t beautiful the way Draco s ex-fiancee, Astoria Greengrass, was. She wasn t all curves and softness with just the right amount of leadership. Ginny was a fighter. She was rather flat chested and had no arse to speak of. She was short and fiery. She commanded a room with the intensity of her voice. She was smart and a worthy opponent. She was nothing like the girls Draco had grown up being told he should marry. And yet he found himself beyond attracted to her.  
Ginny Weasley may not have been a raving beauty, but she was pretty enough, and she was witty, and she was funny. And on some level, Ginny Weasley simply got Draco Malfoy.  
Malfoy? Ginny questioned, breaking him from his thoughts.  
Yeah, sorry. I was internally listing the pros and cons, and I have to say that is a very good idea. I like it a lot. We just say we can t disclose the location she was found at due to our investigation that is still pending, Draco agreed.  
Ginny nodded. Exactly. Malfoy, this guy is going to slip up. And maybe he thinks he can take me, but there s a reason why you and I are the best partners. No one can take us down individually, and together we are unstoppable. So whomever this crazy fuck is, I m not worried, Ginny sincerely told him.  
Draco sighed. Fine. But I will still be staying with you and/or vice versa until this nut is locked up. Ginny rolled her eyes and let out a puff of exasperation. Fine, it s a deal. You re sharing my bed though because I will not listen to you complain about my couch. It just isn t going to happen. Draco smirked. Why Weasley, if you wanted to get me into bed so badly, all you had to do was ask! Ginny smacked Draco in the back of the head, tipping out of her chair in an effort to reach him.  
~~~ Lavender Brown was staring at the ceiling, waiting to hear from Him. She knew she had done a good job. She had done what He had asked her to do. She had given her mind, body, and soul, over to the cause, all so she could be tortured. She needed to look like a victim so that they believed her Master was careless. That He would let her slip through his fingers. Or worse that He was threatening them.  
Lavender didn t understand the plan. But He said that it wasn t for her to understand. She was to follow out orders and help Him. She was the one who would get close to Ginny Weasley and hand deliver her to her Master. Lavender Brown, someone unworthy, would have that honor. She would be rewarded above all others. Not that her Master had others. Or if he did, she didn t know about them. Lavender only knew about her part in the plan. Because the less she knew, the less that could be tortured out of her by the enemy if they were to discover she wasn t really a victim.  
Lavender was so lost in her thoughts, eyes closed, that it wasn t until her Master sat on her bed that she realized he was there with her. He put a finger to her lips, effectively hushing her. Tell no one who I am, he insisted.  
Lavender nodded.  
Of course. Your secret is safe with me, she vowed. Her Master smiled. I know. And with that, he left the room as silently as he came, taking part of Lavender Brown s heart with Him. If only he wanted her instead of ugly, tomboyish, Ginny Weasley. Some girls had all the luck. 


End file.
